A number of the pilgrims told Al Jazeera earlier on Wednesday that they had received Egyptian instructions to transfer them on buses to the Egyptian side of Rafah border crossing.

Earlier in the day, members of the Palestinian Legislative Council staged a sit-in on the Gaza side of Rafah with relatives of the stranded pilgrims, calling for them to be allowed to return to their homes.

Dr Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the council, urged Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, to take up his Arab, national and Islamic responsibilities and immediately end the crisis of the Palestinian pilgrims stranded in El-Arish.

Egyptian security forces were put on high alert at the border crossing.